We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

At dawn, Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes in the courtyard.

He had not slept all night. Instead, he had been using Great Dream of Yellow Millet to deduce the identity and motive of the man in black.

By all logic, Xiao Mo felt that if he used Great Dream of Yellow Millet to trace karma, then even if he could not reconstruct the whole matter, he should at least have been able to find a few clues.

But the karma surrounding that man in black was as if someone had severed it cleanly. Xiao Mo could find no trail to follow at all.

“Forget it. I’ll take it one step at a time.”

Letting out a breath, Xiao Mo could only put the matter aside for now.

He straightened his robes and walked out of the courtyard.

Today, Tushan Jingci had class at the hall, and as her book boy, he had to accompany her.

About the time it took an incense stick to burn, Xiao Mo arrived at Tushan Jingci’s courtyard and saw her standing at the entrance, constantly craning her neck to look into the distance.

The moment she saw Xiao Mo, her fox eyes lit up at once. She ran happily toward him.

“Xiao Mo, you finally came. Let’s go. We’re going to the hall.”

“Why is Young Lady so eager today?”

Seeing how proactive she was, Xiao Mo could not help smiling.

In the past, whether it had been at Elementary Learning Peak or Cloud-Soaring Peak, every morning she went to class with a miserable face, head lowered, dragging her long legs forward with difficulty.

This was the first time she had ever been so enthusiastic.

“I already like studying in the first place, all right?”

Tushan Jingci stuffed the two Confucian classics she needed for class that day into Xiao Mo’s arms, then rose lightly into the air.

Beneath the blue sky, each time Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci took a step forward, a green leaf drifted down beneath their feet.

The two of them walked toward Cloud-Soaring Peak on those leaves as though walking along an ordinary path.

A high breeze passed through, brushing lightly over Tushan Jingci’s skirt and lifting her hair, carrying with it a faint fragrance, like gardenias in bloom.

“Xiao Mo, these past few days, are you getting used to living in your own courtyard?”

With her pale hands clasped behind her back, Tushan Jingci looked at Xiao Mo’s profile and asked with a smile.

“It’s not bad,” Xiao Mo answered. “Every day it’s either cultivation or reading. It really is a rare sort of leisure.”

“Hey! What do you mean, rare sort of leisure?” The girl immediately grew unhappy, pouting her soft pink lips. “Are you saying I usually bother you that much?”

Faced with her fox-bright eyes, Xiao Mo neither nodded nor shook his head. He only looked at her with a faint smile.

“Hmph.”

Under his gaze, Tushan Jingci suddenly felt a little guilty. She turned her head away and quickened her pace, muttering softly as she walked ahead.

“Stupid Xiao Mo. You actually think I’m annoying. Fine, I won’t talk to you. Stupid Xiao Mo. Stupid Xiao Mo.”

Watching the indignant figure of his Young Lady ahead of him, Xiao Mo smiled and quickened his steps to follow.

Two quarters of an hour later, Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci arrived at Cloud-Soaring Peak.

“In another two years, Young Lady will be taking the examination for worthy at Cold Mountain Academy. Two years may not be short for ordinary people, but to cultivators it passes in the blink of an eye. So please listen carefully in class and don’t be careless.”

Before they entered the hall, Xiao Mo gave her a serious reminder.

“I know already...” Tushan Jingci complained, still sulking. “You don’t even live with me anymore, but you nag more than my mother.”

With that, she turned and headed toward the hall.

“Young Lady...”

She had only taken a few steps when Xiao Mo called from behind her.

“What?” The girl turned around.

“You forgot your books,” Xiao Mo said helplessly.

“Oh!”

Tushan Jingci ran back over, snatched the two books from his arms, and stormed off toward the hall again.

“Young Lady...”

Looking at how angry she still was, Xiao Mo called after her once more.

“What?” Though Tushan Jingci kept saying she would ignore him, every time Xiao Mo called, she obediently turned back.

“Actually...” Xiao Mo smiled. “With Young Lady not beside me these past few days, making a nuisance of yourself, I’ve been rather unaccustomed to it.”

Hearing his words, Tushan Jingci froze slightly. Her hands tightened unconsciously around the books in her arms.

“You don’t even want peace and quiet when it’s handed to you. Fine, I’ll annoy you to death!”

A moment later, she recovered, turned around, and ran into the hall.

But beneath her lovely upturned nose, her tender lips had already curved faintly upward.

She wanted to hide that sweet smile.

But it seemed impossible to hide it at all.

Not long after, all the young masters and young ladies of Cloud-Soaring Peak arrived on time.

Outside the hall stood a crowd of book boys like Xiao Mo.

When they had been children, these demon book boys had openly shown their contempt for Xiao Mo as a human.

But now that everyone had grown older, even though they still disliked him, they had learned to bury it and maintain surface courtesy.

And now that Xiao Mo had entered the Dragon Gate Realm—higher than any of them—they regarded him with an added measure of respect.

They knew that if Xiao Mo continued cultivating at this pace, then once he reached the Nascent Soul Realm, he would likely become a retainer of the Tushan clan.

And whether a retainer of Tushan was human or demon, such a position carried no small amount of power.

Not long after, lessons began, and Master Xian’s lecturing voice carried out from inside the hall.

Each time he taught, Master Xian deliberately raised his voice a little, so that Xiao Mo and the others standing outside could hear him.

But those demon book boys still did not take in a single word. All they cared about was waiting for their masters and mistresses to be dismissed. Only Xiao Mo listened seriously.

An entire morning passed.

When class ended, Tushan Jingci came out.

“How was Young Lady’s lesson today?” Xiao Mo asked with a smile when he saw how dazed she looked.

“The same as always. I can understand every single word the teacher says, but for some reason, once they’re put together, I can’t understand any of it.”

Tushan Jingci sighed, then lifted her head and puffed out her cheeks.

“You’re not allowed to laugh at me, Xiao Mo. I really did listen seriously. It’s just that I still couldn’t understand it. What am I supposed to do?”

Xiao Mo shook his head. “What Master Xian taught today really was rather complicated. It wasn’t easy to understand. It’s not Young Lady’s fault.”

“Right? Right? That’s what I thought too.” Tushan Jingci nodded at once in agreement.

“Then, Young Lady, shall we go back?” Xiao Mo asked.

“Ah... go back...”

Tushan Jingci pinched her sleeve, lips pursed, her eyes shifting uncertainly. She looked very reluctant to return.

After a long moment, as if she had suddenly thought of something, she looked up at Xiao Mo.

“Xiao Mo, will you come with me to Cold Mountain City?”

“Cold Mountain City? Does Young Lady want to buy something?” Xiao Mo asked, puzzled.

“Sort of. Let’s go.”

Without even waiting for him to refuse, Tushan Jingci had already flown off toward Cold Mountain City.

When they reached the city, Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci walked through the bustling streets.

Because Tushan Jingci was simply too beautiful, every passerby, whether man or woman, old or young, turned to look at her.

Even the women leaning over the second-floor railings of the brothel run by the Hehuan Sect lowered their calls to customers a little when they saw her.

These women, who made a living off beauty, had always been extremely confident in their looks.

But in front of Tushan Jingci, they felt like nothing more than ordinary wild grass, while she was like a flower blooming in proud splendor.

They had lunch at a restaurant.

Bought candied hawthorn from a street vendor.

Teased kittens and puppies in the market.

Tushan Jingci moved through the city like a lively butterfly.

Xiao Mo gradually realized that his Young Lady did not really have anything she wanted to buy. She had simply wanted to come to Cold Mountain City and enjoy herself.

Two and a half hours passed. Xiao Mo thought she should be satisfied by now, but Tushan Jingci said she still wanted to go play at Clear Spring Peak.

Xiao Mo looked at the sky. The sun was already sinking westward and was about to set.

He felt it was getting late, and that he really ought to take her back.

And during this period of cultivating Great Dream of Yellow Millet, Xiao Mo had also entered a new stage.

Under the influence of Great Dream of Yellow Millet, he felt as though he could never get enough sleep, and he tired more easily than before.

It was almost like the winter sleep of the serpent race. He never knew when drowsiness might suddenly overtake him.

After spending the whole day out, that sense of fatigue had only grown stronger for Xiao Mo.

But just as he was about to speak, he noticed Tushan Jingci looking at him with pleading fox-bright eyes, soft as the gentlest blade in the world pressed straight into one’s heart.

And for a moment, Xiao Mo truly did not know how he was supposed to refuse.

In the end, he could only agree.

By the time the two of them arrived at Clear Spring Peak, the setting sun had already disappeared behind the mountain ridges, leaving only a blurred ring of light along their edges.

The red glow at the horizon was still rich and dense, like paint that could not be thinned, layer after layer spread across the sky until most of heaven had been dyed through.

That red light poured down from above, wrapping all things beneath it in a warm crimson glow.

The woods stood quietly on the mountainside, each tree draped in that veil of red. The forest floor, already thick with fallen yellow leaves, looked even warmer and heavier beneath the light. Stepping on them felt soft, and they made a faint rustling sound.

Returning birds darted urgently across the sky. As they beat their wings, they seemed to stir strands of red light into motion. In twos and threes they plunged into the woods, chattering noisily for a while.

A waterfall fell from high above and crashed onto the stone bank below, its sound deep and clear at once, echoing endlessly through the forest.

At the edge of that clear spirit spring, Tushan Jingci rolled up her sleeves, hitched up her skirt, and took off her shoes and stockings, setting them gently aside before stepping happily into the water.

The spring only reached her ankles. It was so clear that the bottom could be seen at a glance, and her slender ankles shone with a soft luster in the light.

As she walked, ripples brushed over the narrowest curve of her ankles, stirring tiny circles across the water.

She stopped and let the spring wash over the tops of her feet. Her delicate toes curled slightly, as though testing the temperature of the water—or perhaps tickled by the smooth stones beneath it.

Clear beads of water slid slowly down her pale calves, traced the curve of her ankles, slipped across the tops of her feet, and finally dripped from her rounded toes back into the spring.

The fish that had scattered at first gradually gathered back near her feet, swaying lazily there before flicking away again in an instant.

“Xiao Mo, come down and play too.”

Standing in the spring, the girl called to him.

Xiao Mo shook his head. “I’ll stay out of the water.”

“Come on, come on...”

“Young Lady, really, no.”

“Hm? Sister Yueshi, when did you get here?”

Tushan Jingci suddenly lifted a finger and pointed into the distance.

And the moment Xiao Mo turned his head to look, the fluffy white fox tail behind her lashed out, wrapping around him and dragging him into the spring with a SPLASH.

The water soaked through Xiao Mo’s robes at once.

And just as he tried to stand up, the girl cupped both hands together, scooped up spring water, and splashed it right into his face.

Xiao Mo wiped the water from his face. The instant his vision cleared, he saw the girl bent forward, sticking out her tongue and making a mischievous face at him.

“Stupid Xiao Mo. Come on, then. Catch me~”

“Young Lady, then I’ll have to be rude.”

Helplessly, Xiao Mo got to his feet, ready to return the favor.

“That is, if you can catch me.”

“Bleh~”

The girl skipped lightly aside, flicked one slender leg forward, her fair, rosy foot stretching into a graceful arc before lifting. The splash from the top of her foot struck Xiao Mo in the face again.

Half an hour later, night had covered the sky.

Darkness had fully fallen, and stars shone one by one overhead.

Beneath the night sky, beside the clear spring, a campfire had been lit. Xiao Mo had caught several spirit fish, skewered them on branches, and was roasting them over the fire.

When the fish were nearly done and the fragrance had begun to drift out, Xiao Mo pulled one skewer free and handed it to Tushan Jingci.

Holding the branch at both ends, the girl took small bites.

Perhaps because the spirit fish tasted rather good, her lovely eyes narrowed from time to time, soft with a faint and quiet satisfaction.

“Young Lady, after you finish this fish, we really should go back. Otherwise Sister Yueshi will truly be angry.”

“I know...” Tushan Jingci lowered her eyes. All of a sudden, the fish in her hand no longer seemed to taste as good.

After eating a little more than half of it, she lifted her eyes and noticed that beside her, Xiao Mo’s eyelids had drooped halfway shut and his head was occasionally nodding forward.

He looked exactly like she did when she nodded off in class.

“Xiao Mo, are you all right?” Tushan Jingci asked worriedly. “Why do you look so tired?”

“It’s nothing.” Xiao Mo shook his head and forced himself a little more awake. “Just an issue with the cultivation method. Recently I’ve reached a critical stage in my cultivation, so I’ve been unusually sleepy. But it’s not a big problem. Once this period passes, I’ll be fine.”

“I see...” The girl’s eyes shifted, as though some new “bad” idea had occurred to her. “Then, Xiao Mo, once I finish this fish, we’ll go back.”

“All right.” Xiao Mo nodded, his speech a little slower than usual. “But Young Lady, why have you seemed so unwilling to go back today? Did something happen?”

“Hm? No. Nothing happened.”

Tushan Jingci shook her head guiltily, then continued eating the fish.

Since she did not want to say, Xiao Mo did not ask again.

The drowsiness brought on by Great Dream of Yellow Millet once more surged up over him.

Beside him, Tushan Jingci ate even more slowly, stealing glances at him from time to time.

When Xiao Mo’s eyes finally closed completely and his body started to tip forward, Tushan Jingci hurriedly extended her tail, wrapped him up, and carefully pulled him over to her side.

Under the moonlight, Tushan Jingci looked at Xiao Mo, cocooned in her tail, watched his steady breathing, then dipped a finger into a bit of charcoal ash and drew little circles and turtles on his face.

When she finished, the girl looked at her handiwork and clapped her hands in satisfaction.

“Why don’t I want to go back?”

“Stupid Xiao Mo, doesn’t that go without saying?”

She reached out and lightly tapped his nose with one finger, lips puffed a little.

“Because once I go back... I won’t be able to see you anymore.”